


Wundrous Gift Giving: Dreams

by parchmentandpencils



Category: Nevermoor Series - Jessica Townsend
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, You Have Been Warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28403109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parchmentandpencils/pseuds/parchmentandpencils
Summary: So in November I signed up to Lumau's Wundrous Gift Giving, where you would exchange fics, art, cosplays, etc for Nevermoor. So here's the wunshot for Tilly :D
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Wundrous Gift Giving: Dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TillyWunderWing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TillyWunderWing/gifts).



In a sense, Morrigan hadn’t really had a typical childhood. She’d been left alone for the most part, and hadn’t experienced the level of parental care and affection most kids her age took for granted. In this way, her only confidante was Emmett, her stuffed rabbit she’d owned since was a small child. Before she was forced to raise herself. Little Morrigan had shared all of her woes, her hopes and dreams, and her worst fears with the stuffed rabbit that had grown tattered with age.

As Morrigan hadn’t had a human confidante, children and adults alike retreating from her presence as if she was going to grow fangs and turn them into vampires, her nightmares ranged from typical childhood nightmares to those which haunted her in the daytime and left her without appetite. As no one had really cared before, Morrigan was due to receive a crash course in caring adults a few years later.

* * *

It was the winter of her first year attending WunSoc classes, and Morrigan practically felt the hidden power thrum beneath her fingertips. It was true she would probably never be as strong as Owain Binks or Jemmity Odbuoy, but it was always nice to have her own sense of security and backup behind her, especially as some of her Unit mates were still frosty with her. Especially with the notes and demands.

_ Some unit mates they are,  _ Morrigan thought, throwing her pillow at the window.  _ Can’t even lend their support. _

Okay, so maybe it was true that she was slightly more bitter over it this morning, but she had had a bad few days. For the past couple, it had felt as if she was wading through a thick jelly, unable to think clearly or even navigate the Hotel she loved so much. Only the nights were real — the darkness giving contrast to the days, clarity returning to her. The only side effect was that the nightmares felt even more real, and they remained in her thoughts for longer than usual, until the usual fog settled back into her thoughts and the world slid out of focus. Sometimes Morrigan wondered if she was going mad.

“Mog! Time for breakfast!” Jupiter’s knock on the door startled her out of her musings, and she let out a groan, muffled by her arm, which she’d hastily bitten as to not alert her patron that something was wrong.

Shuffling over to the door, Morrigan hoped she did not look as awful as she felt. “Hi,” she muttered to Jupiter. “I’m not hungry.”

“Nonsense!” He retorted cheerfully. “When there’s cake for breakfast,  _ everyone’s  _ hungry.”

“Still not hungry,” she said, shuffling back inside her room and face-planting onto the bed. “Cake sounds good, but nah.”

She could hear muffled footsteps behind her from where her face was burrowed inside her duvet, but this did not stop her from flinching when Jupiter grabbed her shoulder to get her attention. He withdrew his hand immediately, but she’d already sat up. To be precise, she’d contorted her body backwards and managed to roll over at the same time. Jupiter sat beside her on the bed.

“I can see your bad dreams,” he said conversationally. “They’re like exceptionally bad flies. What’s up, Mog?” The last sentence was said in a softer tone that made Morrigan feel extremely awkward.

“Nothing much. Just the normal sort of bad dreams.”

_ Is it normal where a shadow figure of her mother comes out of shadow and smoke and tells her that really, a daughter of hers should really be doing better, and she was quite the disappointment? Or is normal where the hunt of smoke and shadow took all of her friends, one by one, and handed them over to Ezra to be trapped in a museum, like  _ animals _? _

Jupiter rubbed a hand over his face once. “Frankly, I think that’s an understatement. Is this linked to why you have no appetite this morning even though there’s  _ cake?” _

Jupiter looked so petulant that Morrigan barked out a laugh, which turned into a sob.

“Mog?”

He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side, letting her shed a few tears.

“I’m okay,” she whispered after a few minutes, shuddering a little. “Sorry.”

Jupiter looked so utterly bewildered that Morrigan glanced at the floor, face reddening a little. “Why are you sorry? Everyone should have a good cry once in a while.”

Her reply was so hesitant that Jupiter was surprised to actually hear one. "Not me, though." 

"Mog?" 

But she'd closed off and wouldn't answer his question. It was a yearning to know more, to know just  _ how  _ much damage her earlier years had caused her. 

"Mog, talk to me," Jupiter all but pleaded, lifting her chin so he could see the few tears that were unshed glistening in her eyes. And then she blinked, and they did. "Why can't you cry? Why are you stopping yourself from being human? What-" 

"Corvus hated it if I cried." The reply came out in a tangled mess of words. "He would ignore me, say I was useless and no politician's daughter would be so  _ weak,  _ and the last time I cried Ivy slapped me and said that I was disgusting, using tears to get my way, and it wasn't like anyone was even  _ there,  _ anyway." 

Jupiter's eyes narrowed. 

"I see," he said quietly and stood up to pace back and forth around the room, hands behind his back. 

Morrigan watched in slight fear. Did that mean he didn't want her anymore? Would he leave her at the mercy of the hunt? Her mother was right. She  _ was _ a disappointment. "I'm sorry, Sir," Morrigan spoke into the silence. "I won't cry again." 

It was then that Jupiter realised how this must look to Morrigan and he cursed under his breath, going back to her. 

"Mog,  _ Morrigan _ , listen." The undercurrent of uncertainty in her eyes made Jupiter want to throw Corvus and Ivy into a wall. Using a brick. "I told you you're not cursed. You're a regular person, living, breathing like the rest of us. Then why can't you have the rights to be like everyone else? Crying is human, and it shows you're strong. It shows you're normal, just like every single one of us. If we can cry, you can too. We won't shout. We won't hurt you in any way. I-"

He was cut off by an armful of Morrigan. He smiled, adjusting his grip on  _ his  _ child, resting his chin on her head. It was a hug demanding comfort and testing that this was really real, that he would be there for her and wouldn't give her up for the  _ world.  _ Whispering something into her hair, he laid her down on her bed, noticing she was half asleep from the outbursts and emotions. He pulled the duvet over her and used his spare handkerchief to wipe the traces of tears off her face. 

"Get some sleep, okay?" 

The reply was unexpected. 

"Night, Dad," came the sleepy murmur. 

Jupiter shut the door behind him, smiling like a loon. He knew his whispered "You're  _ my  _ child now, forever and always" would give her some security, and he cast a tender look at the doorway and walked away, intending on some cake for breakfast.


End file.
